> The Dragon of Sweet Apple Acres
>  by closet brony 77
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> sweet beginnings
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bright Mac took in a deep breath of fresh air, the smell of apple trees and mud filling his nostrils; by Celestia he loved it, almost as much as he did his own kin.

It hadn’t been easy for him or Pear Butter, her own family essentially disowning her but they had made it work and started a family all their own. About a year after they had gotten married they had birthed their first son, Big Macintosh, a colt with a red coat and a beautiful orange mane just like his mother. Pear Butter had nearly broken down crying when she first looked into his green eyes and Bright Mac couldn’t have been happier at the prospect of being a father, he’d raise that pony right; make him grow up to be a good hardworking stallion like he was, maybe get some grandkids further down the line.

Then two years after the fact came sweet old Applejack, their second child, a filly this time. Blonde hair that seemed to glow like fireflies, an orange coat that reflected the morning sun almost perfectly, she was an angel; well almost. See while Big Macintosh was a fairly quiet foal, well behaved and kept himself out of mischief, Applejack was almost the exact opposite; that foal seemed to attract trouble like a bear to honey, knocking things off shelves, waking up the couple in the middle of the night with her wails, getting into the most darned of places (how did she get onto the roof of the barn?! She didn’t even have wings!), and generally running him and Pear ragged. But she was so utterly adorable, so disarmingly cute that neither of them could ever stay mad at her for long, they could only hope that she would calm down as she got older, catching a foal falling out of an apple tree isn’t good for a pony’s heart.

But enough reminiscing for now, it was harvesting season and he had to get to work, apple trees weren’t gonna buck themselves after all. Bright Mac hooked up the cart full of baskets around his midsection, tugging the wooden contraption out into the middle of the eastern grove; Granny Smith already had the western grove covered despite his protests, it was no secret that his dear old ma was getting on in the years now and couldn’t buck trees like she used to, but that mare was as stubborn as a mule and refused to sit out this season, at least he didn’t need to clear out the entire farm all by himself.

He was looking forward to next week though, they had gotten a big order for apples up in the middle of the southern deserts, something about using the seeds to start a new apple grove for a town they had planned to build up there, something along the lines of Applejuicia or Orangeloosa he didn’t really remember. All he knew that it would have just been him and Pear Butter together, Granny Smith agreed to foalsit Big Macintosh and Applejack while they were gone for the week so they could finally get some alone time on the road for the first time in a few years, Celestia knows a stallion has needs after all.

Sure Pear was a bit nervous about traveling through the everfree forest, with all them timberwolves wandering around but Bright Mac insisted they’d be fine and it would all be worth it in the end. After all it was one of the biggest orders they’d ever had, with the money they’d finally be able to fix up the barn and get Applejack some toys. All they had to do was make it through the week without any shenanigans.

“Just one more week, just one more week and it’ll be nothing but me, buttercup, two carts filled to the brim with apples, and the open road; ah can’t wait” said Bright Mac with a dumb smile, his back hooves impacting with the apple tree behind him, the satisfying sound of apples plopping down into the various baskets placed below the trees.

Soon enough the eldest son of sweet apple acres got into his familiar old rhythm, galloping up to each apple tree and bucking them as hard as he could to knock the sweet fruits loose from the branches. One by one they fell and with each one he knew he was getting one step closer to spending time with his wife.

But suddenly something odd occured that made him stop mid-buck, the last tree he had hit had done something rather strange; he hadn’t seen it of course as he had already trained his sights on his next target, but he had heard it. The familiar sound of apples plopping down into the baskets was broken by an audible thump following a second after, a thump that didn’t sound anything like a falling apple.

Turning around to face the tree, Bright Mac’s eyes nearly bugged out of his skull at the sight he beheld: sitting in a bushel of freshly bucked apples was an egg, not a bird egg that occasionally fell into the baskets when he bucked trees, no this egg was much larger than any bird he had heard off and it was covered with purple polka dots.

Gazing at the egg, Bright Mac mulled over what to do now. He couldn’t just leave it, Pear Butter would never let him hear the end of it but he had no idea what would hatch from it either, it could have been some kind of demon for all he knew.

The farmer pony scooped the egg up into one of his hooves, he’d put it on top of the cart now for safe keeping and then finish up the apple bucking; once he was done he’d take the egg to Granny Smith, she was smart, she’d know what to make of this.

‘So much for some peace and quiet’ thought Bright Mac as he bucked another tree, completely failing to notice the small crack that had started to form on the top of the egg.


*****************************


“So yer saying ya jus found this out in the apple groves?” said Granny Smith.

“Well more like it jus fell outta one of the apple trees granny.” explained Bright Mac.

Granny Smith rubbed a hoof under her chin, she’d seen a lot during the time she’d been alive but for the first time in a while she was utterly stumped.

She had been making one of her famous apple fritters, the secret ingredient was vinegar, when  Bright Mac had burst in holding a rather large egg, asking what in the world he should do with the thing. She had taken the egg out of his hoof and placed it on the dining room table where Big Mac was enjoying a small sippy cup of apple cider, homebrewed of course, in an attempt to try and make out what had laid the egg. But between her years of knowledge and three nature books, Granny simply couldn’t figure out who or what this egg had come from nor could she figure out how it had ended up in Sweet Apple Acres of all places.

“Honestly, Mac. Ah’m just as confused as you are. Ah haven’t got a clue where an egg like this could have come from.” said the elder apple

“So what are we gonna do about this?” asked Bright Mac

“About what?”

Bright Mac looked over his shoulder to see pear butter standing in the doorway, a slightly confused expression adorning her face.

“Well buttercup, ah was out bucking the eastern grove like always when this here egg fell out of one of the trees. Ah took it to Granny so she could have a look at it.”

Pear Butter gently nudged past her husband to get a better look at the egg in question and grew intrigued.

“Wait a darn minute here, this is a dragon egg!” said Pear Butter with slight excitement.

“What? How do ya know that?” asked Granny Smith

“When ah was still just a little filly, ah used to love reading about dragons. They were just such interesting critters, big, fire breathing, covered in scales, but of course ah never got the chance to see one and jus thought they were fairy tales.” said Pear Butter “but this egg here, it looks exactly like the ones in my old picture books, no doubt about it this is a dragon egg.”

Granny furrowed her brow. “Well then ah guess we gotta get rid of it.”

“GRANNY!” shouted Bright Mac

“Ya’ll heard Pear, that’s a dragon egg; which means when it hatches were gonna have a fire breathing lizard on our hands, friendly or not it’ll burn down all of Sweet Apple Acres if we let it. Better to nip this in the flank now.”

“But it’s still just an egg” protested Pear Butter “probably lost its own parents, we can’t just abandon it like this!”

“Well what do ya’ll wanna do? It’s gonna hatch eventually and celestia knows we don’t know nothing about taking care of no dragon! They can grow to the size of a silo ya know!” Granny said

“We can take it to somepony, maybe they can take care of it.” replied Bright Mac

“Do ya know somepony who’d be willin ta take care of a dragon bright mac?” Granny sarcastically asked.

“We ain’t gettin rid of it! Ah’ll mah life ah’ve been wanting to see a dragon fer myself and here it is! We’re keeping that egg!” shouted Pear Butter.

Soon enough the apple trio degenerated into an arguing match over what to do with the egg: Granny wanted to toss it, Bright Mac wanted to turn it over to somepony else, and Pear Butter wanted to keep it. They were so enraptured with their dispute that they completely failed to notice what was happening to the egg on the table.

Big Mac wasn’t the average foal, he was actually a lot smarter than anypony would have assumed given his age. He didn’t know a lot of words apart from Ma and Pa but he was fairly aware of his surroundings and knew the difference between right and wrong, something Applejack had yet to grasp. He had abandoned his cider when he saw his three parental figures start to fight over the weird rock that they had placed on the table, but when the rock began to shake and crack he put his full attention on it.

He looked up to Ma and Pa, waiting for them to do something as the rock began to shake more violently but they were still too busy debating whether or not to summon the princess, whoever that was, over this matter. Soon enough the rock was nearly bouncing up and down on the table, and Big Mac was starting to get scared.

“Ma?” he gingerly asked in an attempt to get their attention, to no avail.

The rock began to crack further, creating a spider web like pattern on its surface

“Pa?” he called out, this time with more force, still nothing

The rock was really shaking now, rocking from side to side like his favorite tire swing

“MA? PA?” his voice had began to elevate to shouting, but it wasn’t enough to match the noise of his parents bickering

Now pieces of the rock had begun to fall off, revealing something soft and squishy beneath the surface.

Big Mac decided he had seen enough already, sucking in a large breath he screamed at the top of his lungs “MA! PA!”

The three grown up ponies finally looked in the direction of their son with a resounding “what?!”

Big Mac merely pointed at the shaking rock in response.

Pear gasped “it’s hatching, by Celestia IT’S ALREADY HATCHING!”

“AH GOTTA SAVE THE CIDER!” shouted Granny Smith, running off into the cellar.

Bright Mac quickly jumped in between Pear Butter and the egg, making sure he would shield her from whatever came out of it.

To both of their surprise, when the egg finally broke away it was rather anticlimactic; instead of a bang like they had been expecting, the egg merely fell into pieces like a wet paper bag, leaving behind a chubby little dragon who let out a joyous squeal before sticking his tail in his mouth and sucking on the tip like a pacifier.

Bright Mac waited for the inevitable fire that would have come, any second now that dragon would start tearing up the place. Only it never came, all it did was sit there in the fragments of it’s own egg, calmly sucking on it’s tail.

Seeing that the dragon wasn’t going to do anything, Pear Butter gingerly stepped around Bright Mac and approached the newly hatched lizard.

“Hey there little fella.” said Pear in a hushed tone

The baby dragon looked up at the pony who had strolled up to him and giggled at her, playfully batting at some of the loose strands of her mane that were in reaching distance. His big pupils staring up at her with complete innocence.

With that Pear Butter melted inside, this dragon was utterly harmless, he wasn’t any more dangerous than Applejack was.

“Well aren’t you just the most adorable little thing.” said Pear, her voice sweet and kind as she gently lifted the baby dragon up into her hooves.

Unfortunately that action seemed to have disturbed the baby dragon more than she had intended as he started to wail out, tears coming out of his eyes, his body squirming around in her grip.

“Aw don’t cry! Shhh shhh shhh, it’s okay. Mama Pear’s here for ya.” said Pear Butter, rocking the dragon back and forth in her arms like she does with Applejack.

The motion almost immediately began to soothe the baby dragon, his crying ceasing and his eyelids drooping until he fell asleep in Pear’s arms, gently teething on one of her hooves.

“Well now what?” said Bright Mac, whispering as to not awaken the baby dragon.

Pear looked down at the baby dragon in her arms, the fragility of the creature laying there awaking her mother hen feelings that she felt with Big Mac and Applejack.

“We have ta take care of him.” said Pear Butter.

“Beg yer pardon?”

“Look at him Mac! He’s completely defenseless, wouldn’t last an hour out there on his own, couldn’t hurt a fly. We can’t abandon him!” said Pear Butter.

“But Granny Smith said-”

“Oh forget what Granny said, look at this little guy!” Pear said, forcing the baby dragon into Bright Mac’s hooves.

The motion made the baby dragon stir slightly and his eyes cracked open to look at the stallion currently holding him, letting out the cutest possible yawn possible in the process. Which dried up any sort of reservations Bright Mac may have had about keeping the baby dragon; Pear was right, this dragon was completely harmless.

“Well howdy there.” said Bright Mac, speaking to the dragon in a baby voice “welcome ta Sweet Apple Acres young un’.”

The dragon responded by reaching up to Bright Mac’s nose with one claw and giving it a firm honk, much to Pear Butter’s amusement.

“Well at least he’s got a good sense of humor.” said Bright Mac with a chuckle, handing the baby dragon back over to Pear Butter.

“Well if we’re gonna be his parents, he needs a name.” said Pear Butter.

Bright Mac leaned over Pear Butter’s shoulder and began to run a hoof down the baby dragon’s head fins, eliciting a giggle in response.

“What about Spike? On account of the spikes on his head.” asked Bright Mac.

“Hmm, ah don’t know. What do you think?” Pear Butter said, holding up the baby dragon “do you like the name Spike?”

Spike giggled again, letting out a small raspberry at the two ponies.

“Heh, guess that’s a yes then.” said Pear Butter.

“Spike it is. Ah’d better get to work on a new crib, our family just grew a little bit bigger today.” said Bright Mac with a smile, only to look down when he felt something gently tapping his hoof.

“Pa?” asked Big Mac

“Hey there Macintosh, meet yer new brother Spike.” Bright Mac lowered spike down so that he was eye level with the colt.

The two stared at each other for a moment, never breaking eye contact as they gazed into each others souls. After a few minutes of this stand off, the two gave an approving nod of each other before Big Mac walked off.

“Ah think they like each other other” said Pear Butter. 

“Ah guess they do, that was a mite strange though.” replied Bright Mac.

Pear Butter nodded in agreement.


******************************


Night had fallen on the ponyville farm rather quickly, the mare in the moon gazing over the landscape.

It took some convincing on Bright Mac’s part to make sure that Granny didn’t toss Spike out on the curve, luckily the baby dragon did all the talking for him with a few funny faces; Bright Mac was starting to think that Spike may have been too cute for his own good, definitely could give Applejack a run for her bits that’s for sure.

He had cobbled together a simple wooden crib in near record time, adding a nice sheen of green and purple paint to it to match Spike’s scales and placed it across from Applejack’s crib.

The foal in question suddenly popped up from her nap to see what was developing across the room.

She saw her father drag in a new crib similar to her own into the room, only this one was painted green and purple. From where she was sitting, Applejack could tell he was placing something into the crib but she couldn’t see past her father's rather large flank. She stood up on the tips of her hind hooves in an attempt to try and spot what her dad was hiding from her.

Turns out the effort wasn’t needed as her father quickly left the room, revealing a weird looking pony in it’s place. One with scales and weird nubs on the ends of his hooves, his wandering eyes slitted instead of rounded like her parents’.

Eventually the weird pony’s gaze fell onto Applejack, who in turn stared right back at the pony in confusion. Much like Big Mac did earlier she gave a welcoming, but mischievous smile to the pony across from her and the pony returned the favor only much more innocently. 

From what little Applejack could gather, her parents had brought her a brand new playmate and she was going to have lots of fun with him one way or another.


*******************************


That day Bright Mac had found a dragon egg in the middle of Sweet Apple Acres and after talking with the rest of his family decided to adopt the creature into their own family. Because they had two infants to look after they were unable to go on the delivery to appleloosa the following week and Granny was forced to make the delivery herself with one of her sisters. Said sister was much more knowledgeable of the various paths through the Everfree Forest and managed to avoid crossing paths with any timberwolves at all. Because they had stayed home, Bright Mac and Pear Butter had never gotten lost in the everfree forest and they had never gotten mauled by a pack of timberwolves in the most tragic of fashions. Which meant they’d be there for their children as they grew up, Spike included. Which also meant that there would be the first dragon to ever join the apple family, a novelty that attracted quite a lot of business to the farm meaning they never had to fall on any sort of financial hardship whatsoever.

All it takes is one day to completely alter the course of history, one event to start the domino effect of events that would soon follow this, one little thing to create a whole new story.

The story of the dragon of Sweet Apple Acres.
> Apple family reunion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bright Mac should have known that adopting a dragon would have come with a completely new set of problems, ones that didn’t come with a foal.

For starters was his fire breath; every time Spike belched he let out a small green flame, Granny Smith learned that the hard way when she burped Spike on one occasion and had a singed tail to show for it. Not to mention when Spike did it for fun, nearly burnt down the house after he lit up his bedroom curtains. Thankfully they had enough bits to replace it and a bit of scolding had seemed to have discouraged the infant from trying a similar stunt.

The next problem was feeding him. The baby dragon loved apples, thank Celestia, but he ate nearly as much as Applejack did and that filly had the appetite of a full grown stallion. Not to mention that being a dragon meant he had a taste for gemstones, it wasn’t expensive to get gems since Sweet Apple Acres was built next to a mountain stocked full of them, but trekking up and down the rock formation to mine for some emeralds took Bright Mac quite a long time. But Granny didn’t raise no quitter, Spike was family now and Celestia knows old Mac would move mountains for em’.

Apart from that, Spike was just like a normal foal and he was much better behaved than Applejack to boot….as long as somepony was watching him that is.

The thing about Spike was that while he wasn’t mischievous, he was VERY adventurous and loved to explore. Normally that wasn’t a bad thing in a foal, but Spike was a hatchling which meant he had claws, claws that were made for climbing rock so getting traction on wood wasn’t very difficult for the dragon.

He moved incredibly quick too, sometimes without so much as a sound. Just a few weeks ago, Pear Butter had just placed a jar of sapphires on top of one of the cabinets after giving Spike one as a treat, she had turned her back for a few seconds to check on an apple pie in the oven and when she looked back, Spike had somehow gotten to the top of the cabinet with one of his chubby little hands reaching into the jar to pull out another gem, Pear didn’t even hear the little guy move! 

It had been incredibly difficult at first, learning all of Spike’s likes and dislikes, his habits and mannerisms, as well as basic care for a dragon; It felt like when Big Mcintosh was first born all over again. But they had finally found their rhythm, Bright Mac and Pear Butter both, Spike couldn’t throw anything else at them that they didn’t know how to handle; they knew when they could and couldn’t let him out of their sight, they had fireproofed the whole house, they had started mixing gems into his apple treats. Everything had begun to return to some semblance of order on the farm.

Only for the entire thing to fall apart because of one little letter.


*************************


Pear Butter had just finished mashing up a few bushels of apples to be made into applesauce while Granny Smith got the pulp into the jars, leaving Pear with a few spare moments out of the day to relax. Pear decided she might as well check the mail to see if anything of interest had come through, hopefully at least a peep from Grand Pear; Pear Butter still missed her father quite a lot.

“Hmm let’s see here: bill from town hall, a subscription to Bobby Blabby’s newspaper, a postcard to Granny Smith from Apple Rose, and a letter from Goldie Delicious” said Pear Butter, slamming the mailbox behind her.

She opened the letter from Goldie first, she was a bit on the nutty side with all those cats she’s been getting recently but that mare was sweeter than a fresh baked apple cinnamon crisp so it was always nice to get a letter from her. But as Pear read through the messy handwriting, her expression went from joy to concern.

Quickly making her way back to the house, Pear Butter found her husband watching over Applejack and Spike who were playing with some wooden blocks while Big Mac was napping on his father’s chest like a kitten. Seeing Pear motioning for him to step out of the room to talk, he gently slid Big Mac off onto the couch to avoid disturbing his slumber and joined Pear in the next room over.

“Buttercup is somethin wrong?” asked Bright Mac

Pear Butter could only hold up the letter in response.

Dear Bright Mac, Pear Butter, and Granny Smith

I surely hope this letter finds ya’ll well
As you know it’s time for the tri-annual apple family reunion and once again everypony decided that Sweet Apple Acres would be the best place to hold it. I’ve already sent out all the invites and we’ll all be there round next week, so you’d best get ready now; it’ll be our biggest reunion yet!

-with love, Goldie Delicious

P.S. I heard ya’ll got a new family member, can’t wait to see the new foal!

Bright Mac looked up from the letter with an expression of confusion.

“What’s so bad about that? Ya know that the apple family reunion happens every three years, your family always went out of town ‘cause of it.” said Bright Mac

“It’s not our family ah’m worried about, it’s Spike.” replied Pear Butter, looking over towards the baby dragon knocking over Applejack’s block tower, causing the foal to angrily babble at him. 

“Nopony knows that he’s a dragon and ah’m scared that after one look at those scales, somepony might overreact.”

“Hey don’t you fret none.” said Bright Mac “Spike’s an Apple and we Apples stick together. We jus gotta introduce him to the family ourselves, all gentle like so we don’t startle anypony. They’ll come round, jus you watch.”

“Yeah, yer right Mac. Everything will be jus- OH DEAR CELESTIA HE’S ON THE CEILING FAN!” Pear Butter shouted.

Whipping his head around Bright Mac saw that Spike was now clinging onto the running celing fan, laughing in delight as if it was a carnival ride; of course by Murphy’s law, the rotation of the fan had become too fast and the baby dragon’s claws came loose sending him flying.

Luckily Pear Butter was quick enough to snatch up a throw pillow and use it as a catcher’s mitt to snag her scaled bundle of joy out of the air, bringing him back to the ground safe and sound all while Spike was just clapping his hands together in amusement, making Pear let out a breath of relief before turning to glare at Bright Mac.

“Alright, ah see yer point. This ain’t gonna be easy for anypony.” said Bright Mac.

Right then several books fell of the bookshelf on the opposing wall, Applejack popping out of the pile with a smile. Apparently the foal had tried to climb the shelves so she could get at the ceiling fan too, but the lack of claws made that for more difficult for her than it was for Spike.

“Ah wanna fwy too! Jus wike Spike!” exclaimed Applejack.

Bright Mac could only groan “well this is gonna be a FUN reunion, that’s fer sure.”


*****************************


Surprisingly the preparations had gone off without a hitch: the cider had been made, the treats baked, all the activities planned. Everything was all set for the army of family members that would soon descend on Sweet Apple Acres.

Of course there was still the matter of Spike, it wasn’t a big secret that dragons weren’t thought of very highly in equestria; there were more stories about dragons being the villains in books than there were floors on the Crystaller building in Manehatten, even though Spike was a baby the apples were still worried that he might get more than a few stink eyes at the reunion. Sure Granny Smith had agreed to put in a good word for him, say what you will about that mare but her words held a lot of weight in the family; but neither Bright Mac or Pear Butter was sure if even that would be enough.

“No stop thinking like that Pear” Pear Butter said to herself as she paced back and forth in Spike and Applejack’s room. “Like it or not, Spike is our son now and if the rest of the family don’t like it then that’s too bad for them. Oh but what if I lose another family? I already lost the Pears, I can’t lose the Apples too.”

Pear had been tossing and turning throughout the night, continuously worrying about the apple family reunion tomorrow and if they would accept Spike as one of their own. Around midnight is when she rolled out of bed and walked down the hall to her two children, looking at both of them sleeping soundly in their beds unlike her; but paying extra attention to Spike.

Soon enough she had started mumbling to herself over her fears and began to circle the room; an action which aroused the baby dragon from his slumber, who noticed his mother next to him and got up against the edge of his crib, standing on the tips of his toes to get a better look. Spike’s expression turned into one of concern when he saw Pear Butter in distress.

Spike didn’t know why she was so worried, ever since she had brought in that paper last week she had been looking at him like she was sad every time she saw him which made spike sad; he didn’t want to make mommy sad. Spike tried to think about how she could make her feel better but being a baby meant he didn’t have a lot to work with

Then he remembered that word daddy always said to mommy, he didn’t know why but it always put a smile on her face no matter what; so Spike decided to try it himself, to make mommy happy again.

“Bfflllt, bullt, buh, buh.” the baby dragon began to babble out, spittle dripping down his chin as he tried to mimic the word in question.

Pear looked over to Spike’s crib and lifted the infant up into her arms. “What? What is it? Are ya hungry?”

“Buh, bud, buddercup.” Spike said, finally nailing the pronunciation...more or less

Pear Butter blinked it suprise “what did you just say sugar?”

“Buddercup! Buddercup! Buddercup!” Spike repeated, as if saying it again and again would make his mommy happy quicker.

“Yer first word!” Pear shouted with glee “did you learn that from Bright Mac? Ah bet you did, mah little apple slice.”

Spike smiled back at his mother, whatever he had said had worked, his mommy was happy again; mission accomplished.

Once the initial surprise of being able to see Spike say his first word firsthand, Pear Butter calmly grinned at her dragon son; all the worry simply melting away from her.

“Ya know what? Ah’m probably getting all worked up over nothing, the rest of the family is gonna adore ya Spike, ah know it.” said Pear Butter, setting Spike back down into his crib where he immediately fell asleep.

The mare proceeded to walk out of the room and get back into bed with Bright Mac, hugging onto his snoring form like a body pillow; her eyes snapping shut soon after as she drifted off into the dream realm.


***************************


The next morning the whole family had gotten up bright and early for the apple family reunion, making some last minute preparations to ensure everything went smoothly.

Applejack and Spike were still resting upstairs, Bright Mac and Pear Butter would introduce them later in the day, but Big Mac was right next to them, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He had made a lot of progress in his vocab recently and could manage a few simple sentences now, but the colt was quickly becoming somewhat of a chatterbox.

“Are Auntie and Uncle Orange nice? Is Goldie Delicious gonna bring her cats again? When is Spike gonna be out here?” When-“ Big Mac just kept on firing out question after question after question.

“Ah think ah liked it better when he only said ‘eeeyup’ and ‘nnope’” whispered Bright Mac in a joking tone

“That colt does tends ta speak more than he listens.” Replied Pear Butter only for Granny Smith to hush all three of them.

“Quiet, ya’ll hear that?” The elder Apple said

At first there was nothing but the sound of the trees gently rusling in the wind, then came the rumbling.

There were dozens of them stampeding down from the hills, apples that had come from far and wide, all so that the whole family could be together for one day of fun on the farm, a day where they could catch up with one another and strengthen the apple family bonds. But most importantly was the biggest news of the apple family as of recent: Pear Butter and Bright Mac had not one, but two new foals and everypony was eager to meet both of them.

Within moments a sizeable crowd had formed in front of the barn, a cacophony of excited chatter filling the air, ponies hugging each other everywhere you looked, the younger ones playfully giving out noogies; it was just one massive pile of family adoration.

Once everypony had settled in, Granny Smith hopped onto the podium they had cobbled together for the occasion “HOWDY YA’LL AND WELCOME TO THE APPLE FAMILY REUNION” The elderly pony boomed as the crowd cheered. Despite being a bit on the frail side, that pony could shout loud enough to be heard for miles around.

“We got a full day planned for everypony with the seven-legged race and-” Pear Butter’s attention was quickly dragged away from her mother in law when she felt a light tugging on her shoulder, looking over she saw her sister Aunt Orange (a rather confusing name when you got down to it) motioning for her to join her away from the crowd.

Once they were a decent distance away, Aunt Orange wrapped her sister in a big hug.

“It is an absoulute delight to see you again dear sister.” said Aunt Orange

“Back at ya sis.” replied Pear Butter, returning the hug

As the two pulled away from the embrace, Aunt Orange’s expression grew somber. “I heard about what happened between you and father….I’m so sorry Pear.”

“It’s fine, ah’ve got Bright Mac, Granny Smith, and three beautiful foals to be mah new family. That and all the other Apples too, ah’ll be alright sis.” Pear said, just a hint of sadness weaved between her words.

“If you say so Pear. Speaking of foals, where are those two adorable little sweethearts of yours that everypony has told me so much about?”

Pear awkwardly scratched the back of her head “well ah was gonna wait until a bit later to introduce em’ to everypony, but what the hay it won’t do no harm for their aunt to get a good look at em. Jus promise me ya won’t overreact.”

“Darling why in the world would I ever overreact to a pair of cute foals?”

“Eeehhh, you’ll see when we get there” replied Pear Butter, leading her sister into the house, upstairs into the babies’ room.

“Alright here we are, sis I’d like you to meet Spike and Applejack!” exclaimed Pear Butter, pushing the door open.

Aunt Orange strolled over to one of the cribs and gazed inside, expecting to see a foal, only to frown and turn back towards Pear Butter.

“Pear, the crib is empty.”

“What?!” pear shouted, shoving her sister aside to see that the foal crib was indeed short one adorable orange filly with a blond mane.

Pear threw herself over to the crib on the opposite side of the room and to her horror, the green and purple dragon that should have been occupying it was absent as well.

Now in full panicked mother hen mode, Pear began to search the room for her missing babies, spotting an open window with several pillows piled below it as a makeshift ramp, a few strands of blonde hair and flecks of shed scales lightly dusted the fluffy surfaces making it fairly obvious what had happened.

“Oh horseapples not again!” said Pear Butter

“Again? You mean this has happened before?!”

“Ah tell ya Orange, those two get into more trouble than any other foal ah know. Come on, we gotta find em!” said Pear, rushing out of the room with her sister in tow.


*******************


“See young uns’? There’s nothin to it” said Bright Mac, finishing his hooves-on explanation of how to make the perfect apple jam to some bright-eyed fillies and colts of the apple clan, who clapped in appreciation.

“Now all we gotta do is git it into the-”

“BRIGHT MAC!!!” Pear Butter shouted, cutting off her husband as she galloped over. “THEY’RE GONE!”

“What? Who’s gone?” asked Bright Mac

“Applejack and Spike! They got loose from their cribs and crawled outside!” 

“Oh bucking- ah’ll get the net, you get some other ponies ta help ya look for em, they couldn’t have gotten far.” said Bright Mac, galloping off towards the barn.

Naturally Pear Butter’s outburst didn’t go unnoticed by the rest of the family who started to gather around her.

“Wait, yer foals have gone missin?” said Apple Strudle

“Yeah, ah gotta watch those two like a hawk, otherwise they’ll get into the strangest of places”

“Well what are we watin for? Let’s hunt em down!” said Red Gala, the rest of the ponies nearby cheering in agreement.

The crowd quickly fanned out over the surrounding area, searching high and low for a pair of foals running around, leaving no stone unturned and no hay bushel overlooked. Everypony calling out for them in hopes of finding them as quickly as possible.


***************


Meanwhile on the opposite side of the festivities, there were several Apples hard at work cooking up some piping hot fritters. Apple Split in particular was being especially diligent in his contribution; however either he was seeing things or there were fewer fritters than before each time he took another plate over.

After scooping up another pile of fritters onto a plate, Apple Split carried it over to the snack table only to find that he was in fact not going crazy and the fritters were disappearing as a whole plate was now gone.

“Hey, where did all them apple fritters go?” said Apple Split.

The sound of munching and crunching coming from underneath the table caused Apple Split’s ears to perk up and he took a peek in the location of the sound; he immediately came face to face with one of the most adorable foals he had ever seen, chewing on a freshly baked fritter and smearing it all over her face.

“And, who are you little one?” asked Apple Split.

“I’m Applejack! More apple fwitter?” the baby replied.

“Awww, aint’t you just precious?” said Apple Split, gently scooping Applejack up into his arms.

“Hey splits have you see a- oh you found one of em!” said Red Delicious.

“Hmm?”

“Pear Butter’s foals got loose but by the looks of things you just found one of em’. Where was she anyhow?”

“Oh her?” said Apple Split, bouncing Applejack in his arms for emphasis “well this little one was keeping herself busy snagging a few fritters away when ah had my back turned.”

“Well that’s one down, ah wonder where the other one is?”


***************


Near where several vats of apple jam were being cooked to perfection, a small dragon hatchling was perched on a large branch jutting out from one of the apple trees.

Recently he had gotten a strange fascination with the red orbs growing on the trees that he always saw from his bedroom window, his father called them apples and always cooked them into his meals but he never had gotten to hold one for himself until now.

Applejack was right, this was a good idea. Earlier the pair had woken up to the sound of pony cheers and while upset at first, it was quickly snuffed out by the smells that had begun to wafte in through their window, this made Applejack come up with a plan to get outside to the tasty treats by having Spike climb out of his crib before freeing Applejack, then they piled up all their toys in one corner of the room to make a ramp outside. They split up when they reached the ground, Applejack going after something she called ‘fwitters’ while Spike was more interested in getting at those apples on the trees.

Which brings us back to the here and now, Spike slowly inching forward on the branch towards his prize, every shimmy brought him one step closer; right as the fruit was in arms reach he paused at the sound of an unfamiliar cracking, then all of a sudden the branch gave way under his weight and he was sent plummeting to the ground.

Thankfully he had been right above the vats of apple jam when he fell, so instead of becoming a dragon pancake, Spike ended up splashing down into a cauldron of apple jam that Auntie Appleseed was currently tending to which made the mare cry out in surprise and her dentures fell right into the vat as a result.

“Oh phooey not again!” Exclaimed Appleseed, sifting through the vat for the lost chompers.

She was only able to search for a mere moment before she was knocked off her hooves by a large object bursting out of the mixture.

Looking up from her spot on the ground, she grew surprised to see that there was a small little baby dragon clinging to the edge of the pot, his head jutting out of the boiling jam, looking at the elderly mare with a smile whose innocence could only be found on an infant.

“Well I’ve nevah seen a critter like you before and I must say you gave me such a fright.” Said Aunt Appleseed. “How in the world did you get in there?”

“There you are!” Said Bright Mac, trotting over and lifting Spike out of the pot, Apple jam dripping off the baby dragon. “Don’t you ever run off like that again, ya here?”

“Wait you know this little one Mac?” Asked Appleseed 

“Well Auntie, the thing is….oh buck it all to Tartarus, ah’m jus gonna say it: meet the newest addition to our family, Spike.” Said Bright Mac

“You meet to tell me that is dragon is one of your new foals?”

“Ah found him just a bit after Applejack was born, he hatched right in front of me an’ Pear, we decided to keep the little guy” explained Bright Mac as he started wiping the jam off of his dragon son with an old rag “ah mean look at him, would you have abandoned him?”

Spike gazed back over at auntie Appleseed and gave her one of his adorable looks that could melt the heart of a wendigo.

“Awww, you’re right. He’s simply precious! Coochie Coochie coo.” Said Auntie Appleseed as she tickled Spike’s belly.

Bright Mac immediately grew frightened when he saw what his aunt was doing. “Wait! Don’t tickle him t-“

“URRRRP!” 

Appleseed’s ministrations caused Spike to let out a loud burp of fire right into Appleseed’s face, singeing her hair but otherwise leaving the mare unharmed; if rather stunned by what had just occurred.

“Sorry about that.” Said Bright Mac sheepishly “but he is a dragon after all, he can’t help it.”

Spike looked similarly ashamed and held up Auntie Appleseed’s dentures as a peace offering of sorts, to which Appleseed took the fake teeth out of the dragons hands and shoved them back into her mouth to give him a weak smile.

“Dat was inwedible!” Exclaimed a small foal with a light gold coat and a mane colored amber and gamboge. He had managed to see the whole thing and rushed over as fast as his little legs could carry him, completely in awe at the dragon’s abilities. “Do it again! Again!”

“Now Braeburn don’t be rude!” Said another mare of a similar coat color trotting up to him “although ah have ta say that ah’m pretty interested in him too, Ah’ve never seen a dragon after all; what does he eat anyhow?”

“Mostly what we eat, though he does like to have-”

“Say is that a dragon?” another pony interrupted.

Soon enough a plethora of family members had begun forming a crowd around Spike and Bright Mac, each with their own questions about the hatchling with some being so bold as to ask if they could hold him in their own hooves

While Mac was worried about his son becoming overwhelmed by all the ponies, he actually remained surprisingly calm as Bright Mac explained what it was like raising a baby dragon as Spike was gently passed around from family member to family member; only managing to burn one particularly affectionate uncle in the process.

Eventually Pear Butter took notice of the crowd forming around the vats of apple jam and went over to investigate, pushing her way to to the front of the crowd she was elated to see not only Bright Mac holding Spike safe and sound but that none of her family members were looking at Spike with fear or disgust but rather curiosity and intrigue.

It was at that moment that some of the other ponies spotted the bundle of joy carried in Pear Butter’s arms.

“Hey Pear Butter, this the other foal ya were talkin about?” asked Red Gala.

“Sure is.” replied Pear

Almost instantly, Pear Butter and Applejack were receiving the same treatment as Bright Mac and Spike, Only with much more cuddling.

After a while the crowd had gotten their fill of the two and dispersed to go back to all the other planned activities of the reunion, but of course that didn’t stop anypony from including Applejack or Spike in the celebration. 

For the rest of the day Applejack and Spike were spoiled rotten: stuffed to the brim with apple treats, showered with toys and gifts, cuddled like stuffed animals, nearly everypony was doting over the adorable foal and hatchling.

But of course the reunion couldn’t have lasted forever and as Celestia’s sun was setting in the distance, everypony had to say their goodbyes and return to their various homes in Equestria; However many promised to stop by whenever the chance presented itself.

Once again, all was quiet on Sweet Apple Acres; the only source of noise was Bright Mac, Pear Butter, and Granny Smith cleaning up after the celebration while Applejack, Big Mac, and Spike napped in front of the fireplace.

“Well this was one of the best family reunions yet!” said Granny Smith as she folded the family quilt up “Spike and Applejack definitely know how to draw a crowd.”

Bright Mac chuckled while running a tablecloth over a washboard “and Buttercup was worried that they wouldn’t like Spike, ah told ya it was silly”

“Alright, ya made yer point. Ah’m just happy that everypony took to Spike like a duck to water.” said Pear Butter, scrubbing the used dishes in the sink.

“Well of course they did” replied Bright Mac “those two are as cute as a button, no way anypony wouldn’t have liked em’”

Having loaded the last box into the barn, Granny walked over to Pear Butter and put a hoof on her shoulder “hey, you two have had a long day, howsabout ah finish up yer chores and you put Spike, Big Mac, and Applejack in bed and git some shuteye?”

“Are ya sure Granny? We don’t mind doin our share.” said Pear Butter

“Oh hush up, ah’d say you two have earned a bit of down time, ah’ll be fine.” said Granny Smith, pushing over to get at the messy plates

Seeing that the matriarch of the apples wasn’t going to be moved, Bright Mac and pear butter left granny to her own devices. 

Spike and applejack had woken up and were starting into the fire with their eyes glazed over, using Big Mac’s sleeping form as a pillow. only for all three of them to be roused by Pear Butter’s touch as she hoised them up onto her back and carried them upstairs.

“You two sure gave us the runaround today didn’t ya?” said Pear Butter “yer both lucky yer so cute.”

“Hey c’mon now, don’t ya think Apple Rose pinching their cheeks was punishment enough?” said Bright Mac with a laugh

“Buddercup!” exclaimed Spike

Bright Mac’s eyes widened “did he just say-”

“Yup, he started saying it last night.” 

“Wait, ya mean ah missed Spike’s first word?!”

“Ya did get to see his first steps while ah didn’t, ah’d day that makes us even.” replied Pear Butter.

“Fair point.” said Bright Mac, before he leaned into each crib and planted a kiss on each infant’s head.

Gently shutting the door behind them, Pear Butter began to suggestively trace circles onto Bright Mac’s chest “So now that Spike, Big Mac, and Applejack are in bed and Granny is downstairs, what’s say you and I have some…’alone’ time?” 

It took Bright Mac all of about five seconds to realize what his wife was implying, a goofy smile coming across his face as he dragged her into their bedroom; sounds of squeaking springs and giggles soon following after.

All in all, it had been a fun reunion for everypony, and dragon.
> Mudslingers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Applejack’s hooves beat against the ground as she weaved her way through the trees, ducking past some of the lower hanging branches that whizzed by her head.

She didn’t need to look behind her to know that the beast was only a few paces away and closing in fast, if the increasing volume of snapping branches and thumping footsteps were anything to go by. This made applejack only double her pace, pushing her little legs to the absolute limit, knowing it would all be over if she was caught.

She had been counting on Big Mac to help her but he had abandoned her to save himself a while back, now it was just her and the beast.

Applejack could feel the beast barreling down on her so she needed to think fast if she was going to get away; spotting a branch that was within her reach, the farmer filly grabbed ahold of it with her teeth and pulled back, letting it whip right into the creature’s face when he ran up causing him to howl in pain and stumble back. While he was stunned, Applejack turned heel and continued sprinting through the fields.

Soon enough the farmhouse came into sight and Applejack smiled through her huffing and puffing as her legs ached, just a little bit further and she’d be home free, though with how tired she was getting it might have well been a hundred miles. But Applejack wasn’t a quitter, she pushed herself even harder than before.

But unfortunately for her the beast’s tenacity was even greater than her own and he burst from the foliage and came down on her in the blink of an eye.

Applejack could only look in horror as a purple claw came down onto the back of her flank, distracting her from the rock right in front of her that made her trip and fall face first into the dirt.

“Tag! You’re it!” Spike shouted, before taking off towards the house.

Applejack tried to pick herself back up and catch her brother in time but it was too late, he had already tagged the home base on the front porch, right next to a smirking Big Mac.

“Ha! We win, you lose!” Exclaimed Spike.

“Alright, ya don’t have ta rub it in.” replied Applejack

Spike walked back over to Applejack and helped the filly back onto her feet, dusting some of the dirt flecks off of her front.

“Ya alright?” asked Spike

“Yeah, ah’m fine. Just a little scraped up.” replied Applejack “can we play somethin’ besides tag?”

“Like what?”

“Ah dunno….what do you wanna do Big Mac?” said Applejack

“Well we can’t go into town, ma and pa don’t like us wanderin too far from Sweet Apple Acres” said Big Mac.

“And it’s too cold for the watering hole” added Applejack

“Hmmm, ah know! We can play in the club house pa just built fer us!” suggested Spike

About a week ago, when Applejack had come with Pear Butter on a few airens, the filly had overheard one of the other foals bragging about having their own club house which made Applejack beg and plead for Bright Mac to build her one, he agreed on the condition that she helped him build it to teach her how to use tools properly; together they created a very fine piece of craftsmanship that would make any foal jealous.

“That sounds fun, but what are we gonna do there?” asked Big Mac

“How about we play royals? Being ‘Princess Spike’ was fun!” replied Spike

“Okay! Last one there’s a rotten apple!”

When the two of them took off running, Applejack paused to remain behind for a few moments. Rotten apple or not she needed to think about a few things, namely what she overheard her parents talking about last week. 

It wasn’t anything bad mind you, but it was something that made Applejack think; her parents had been discussing the future of the farm and eventually the conversation had come around to her, Big Mac, and Spike, how the plan was to have the three of them take over when Ma and Pa got too old to buck the trees.

That didn’t quite sit right with Applejack, she loved the farm and she loved her family sure, but she didn’t want to spend the rest of her life here. She wanted to go out into Equestria, make a name for herself, be something more than just a simple farmer pony harvesting apple trees. But unfortunately she didn’t see a way out, everypony on Sweet Apple Acres was adamant on keeping her here and she couldn’t protest their decision out of fear of breaking her family’s hearts, Spike’s especially; that dragon and her had been thick as thieves, helping each other out when they get in a jam and always having their sibling’s back no matter what, spike was not just her brother but he was her best friend, if he found out she wanted to leave it would destroy him and she couldn’t do that to him.

She let out a sigh and started running towards the club house; she’d figure things out eventually, she had to.


********************


Granny Smith pursed her wrinkled lips together as she saw her granddaughter took off in the direction of her siblings.

That mare had lived a lot of years, she was almost as old as the town of Ponyville, as such she had acquired a lot of wisdom in that time from how to get rid of timberwolves to a surefire technique to weed out a liar to how to make the perfect apple pie; but the one thing she excelled at above all else was telling when there was turmoil within her family, she had seen in in Bright Mac when he hid his relationship with Pear Butter from her and she saw it now in Applejack, but for the life of her she couldn’t figure out what was bothering the poor filly

Standing up from her rocking chair, joints popping as they extended, Granny Smith decided that the best way to get some answers was to go to straight to Bright Mac and Pear Butter about this; surely they knew what was wrong with Applejack.

It had been one of those rare days on the farm where there wasn’t anything that needed to be done, the trees had been bucked, the animals fed, the jams made. All the apples were free to get some rest and relaxation from their busy lives for a change. Bright Mac tended to use these days to do one of two things: catch up on a good book or have a roll in the hay with Pear Butter. Since the barn wasn’t shaking around like it was possessed by a poltergeist, Granny could only assume it was the former of the two, thank Celestia. She found her son lying on the couch with his muzzle stuck to the pages of Sherlock Hooves and the dancing griffon, he always did love a good mystery. Granny gently tapped on Bright Mac’s shoulder to get his attention, the stallion looked up to meet his mother’s gaze.

“Somethin wrong Granny?” asked Bright Mac, picking up on the elderly apple’s expression of concern.

“It’s Applejack Mac.” replied the elderly mare.

Abandoning his book on a throw pillow, Bright Mac sat up straight “what about her?”

“She’s troubled Mac, but ah can’t imagine why…”

“What? Applejack hasn’t been…” Bright Mac trailed off as he went over recent events, namely the ones involving Applejack. The more the farmer pony thought about it the more he realized that there had been something off about his daughter for the past week, the filly had been distracted when helping Pear Butter with her baking and nearly burnt some of the apple tarts, she had spent long amounts of time staring out towards the apple fields from the front porch, and when playing with her brothers there was a slight lack of her usual enthusiasm.

“Wait no, yer right. Applejack has been acting a tad strange lately.”

“Do ya know why?” Asked Granny Smith.

Bright Mac shrugged “beats me, ah haven’t heard about anythin bad happenin to her lately.”

“Well it’s gotta be somethin Mac, fillies don’t get upset fer no reason.”

“Can ah say somethin?” said Pear Butter walking into the room “call me crazy but ah think she might be bored of the farm.”

“WHAT?!” Granny Smith and Bright Mac said in unison.

“Now hold on, it’s just a hunch but ah think Applejack might not want to spend the rest of her life here.”

“But she’s an apple! We’re all farmer ponies at heart!” protested Bright Mac “it’s been that way fer generations!”

“And what about yer sister up in Baltimare? She became a writer after she left the farm.” replied Pear Butter “but yer still sorta right, Applejack is an apple which means we have to accept her no matter what she wants to do!”

“She’s got a point there mac.” said Granny “if ah can accept a pear into mah family ah can accept Applejack even if she doesn’t want to stay on Sweet Apple Acres.”

“What do we do then? Ah don’t want AJ mopin around until she’s old enough to leave home.”

“Give Applejack a change of scenery, ah’ve got family up in Manehatten that could take her in. Aunt orange and her husband would love ta have her company.” said Pear Butter, pulling open a drawer to look for a paper and quill “who knows, she might even get her cutie mark over there.”

“Aren’t Aunt Orange and Mosely Orange one of those fancy pants socialite couples?” said Bright Mac, still unsure about his wife’s decision.

Finally retrieving the needed materials for a letter, Pear Butter turned back around to face Bright Mac “well yeah, but like ah said, Applejack needs a change of scenery; getting away from the farm to be in the city could be good fer her, sides if ah wasn’t sure about this ah wouldn’t have even brought it up.”

“Well….alright Buttercup, if it gets Applejack out of the dumps, ah’ll trust ya on this.” said Bright Mac, eliciting a smile from his wife.

“Those young un’s have been out there fer quite awhile now, must be gettin hungry. Ah’ll bring em some apple slices to hold em over.” said Granny Smith “ah hope ya know what yer doing Pear.”


***************************


Meanwhile, back with the hatchling and foals we all know and love, Applejack had finally arrived at the clubhouse long after her two brothers and was confused to hear giggling coming from the inside of the structure.

Applejack tugged on the door only to find that it had been bolted shut, so the filly knocked on the door with a hoof; she could hear a yelp of alarm come from Spike that was quickly followed by a series of chaotic thumps before the dragon finally opened the door for her.

“Well it’s about time ya showed up, me an Big Mac were gettin bored.” Said Spike 

Applejack looked over Spike’s shoulder to see Big Mac moving some of the floorboards back into place, she almost though she saw a cloth hoof sticking out of the hiding place; but that was silly, Spike and Big Mac don’t play with dolls.

“Hey, yer the ones who took off like a pair of hummingbirds being chased by a mean old cat.” Said Applejack.

“Oh yeah.” Replied Spike, his cheeks starting to blush red “now that yer here ya still wanna play royals?”

“Nah, Ah wanna play somethin else fer a change. We could play adventurers.”

Big Mac soon stepped out to meet the two, but his attention was quickly drawn away by something interesting sitting on the left side of the clubhouse.

“Aww, but ah always gotta be the villain when we play that!” Spike moaned.

“Well how about we ask Big Mac what he wants to do? Wait where is he?” Said Applejack, looking around to see where her brother had gotten off to.

“Hey ya’ll come look at this.” Said the colt in question, who happened to be leaning on the wooden railing.

Applejack and Spike walked over to join their brother and followed his gaze to see what was so fascinating: sitting on one side of the clubhouse was the largest mud pit any of them had ever seen, it had to be a mile wide and a mile deep, celestia’s sun hit it in such a way that it seemed to shimmer like diamonds, and the way it calmly rippled in the light breeze was just inviting, begging for somepony to jump in and go to town. 

“Woah. Now that’s a mud hole if Ah ever saw one.” Said Spike.

“Ah’ll say” added Applejack “look at the size of that thing, ah jus wanna dive in like Granny used to do when she was a swimmer.”

Spike leaned in closer to get a better look at the pit, unfortunately for him Applejack had secretly cut a few corners when she made the railing for the club house and the weight of a whole baby dragon on the loose wood proved too much for it to handle. The railing snapped free from under Spike, sending him falling face first into the mud pit; where the baby dragon landed with a splat.

“Gah! Ah think ah got mud in my mouth!” Whined Spike, standing up in the waist deep pit, trying to get the muck out of his eyes.

The hilarity of the situation wasn’t lost on Big Mac or Applejack who soon erupted into laughter at their brother’s misfortune.

“Oh so ya’ll think that’s funny huh?” Snapped Spike “well try this on fer size!”

The baby dragon scooped up a clawful of mud and hurled it at his siblings, the muck nailed Applejack right in the face who stumbled over the side sputtering and landed in the pit right next to Spike; mud getting into her coat and mane.

“Hey!” Shouted Applejack as she tried to shake the mud off her body like a dog.

Big Mac’s laughter grew in volume to see both of his siblings fall in the mud, making Applejack and Spike narrow their eyes at the colt; the dragon and the filly looked at each other and gave a knowing nod before leaping up towards their older brother, grabbing him by his forehooves, and yanking him down into the mud with the rest of them.

“Why ya-“ Big Mac started, only to pause when he saw his brother and sister coated in mud, looking back and forth between the two.

Spike and Applejack soon began to mimic him, their gazes bouncing between each other until all three of them broke out laughing together at their own misfortune.

At least until Big Mac picked up a mud pie and mashed it into Spike’s face.

Wiping his vision clean, Spike looked at his brother with a cocky grin.

“Oh so that’s how it is?” Said the baby dragon.

“Eeyup.” Replied Big Mac, scooping up another pile of mud.

“Alright, BRING IT ON!” Spike shouted.

The baby dragon jumped forward and tackled his older brother into the muck, making it splash up into Applejack’s face who quickly joined in on their mud wrestling match.

It didn’t take long for it to turn into an all out mud brawl; the Apple siblings playfully wrestling each other in the mud, flinging clumps at each other, squealing in joy the whole time. But their fun couldn’t last forever after all.

“What do ya’ll think yer doin?!” Shouted Granny Smith.

The trio froze mid wrestle, Spike had Big Mac in a headlock while applejack was tugging on the former’s tail with her teeth.

Spike ended up being the first one to speak “we were just playin in the mud Granny! We weren’t hurtin anypony”

Applejack dropped spike’s tail out of her mouth “yeah Granny, we were just havin some fun, honest!”

The elderly mare let out an exasperated sigh “ah’m not made cause yer playing in the mud, but if any of ya think yer setting a single hoof inside the house like that, ya’ll have got another thing comin.”

Spike, Big Mac, and Applejack’s pupils shrunk to pinpricks; that phrase was Granny’s way of saying it was bathtime. 

All three of them ran off in different directions screaming like a timberwolf was chasing them.

“Here we go again.” Muttered Granny Smith as she started galloping after them.


********************


Despite her age, Granny Smith was extremely quick on her hooves and managed to roundup all three of her grandfoals and drag them back over to the barn in under half-an-hour.

Applejack and Big Mac were sitting one of the wooden benches built into the walls, the foals draped in towels, frowning. While Spike was sitting in a tub of water, being scrubbed down by Granny Smith, wearing a similar expression on his face.

Meanwhile Pear Butter was walking out to the mailbox to mail a letter to her sister fully explaining the situation involving Applejack, once the letter was in she turned around to see a rather snooty looking mare strolling down the dirt path to the farm; looking at her surroundings like one looked at a trash dump.

‘Must be a Canterlot noble.’ thought Pear Butter ‘might as well see what she wants.’

“Howdy there, can ah help you?” said Pear Butter.

The snooty pony looked at pear for a brief moment before flipping her mane out of her eyes rather dramatically.

“Hello there, my name is Delilah Sunlight from Canterlot.”

‘Knew it’ Pear Butter said in her head.

“I’ve been organizing a charity ball of sorts and need a caterer, I wanted to get something more….dignified but my dear old father insisted on a simple menu and referred me to here.” said Delilah.

“Then yer father is a pretty smart pony, Sweet Apple Acres makes some of the finest apple products in all of equestria. What didja have in mind?” said Pear Butter.

“Well they would have to be bite sized so possibly some mini apple cakes, some apple tarts, and a…..” Delilah Sunlight trailed off as she looked at something over Pear Butter’s shoulder “sweet Celestia is that a dragon?”

Pear Butter looked over her shoulder to see Granny Smith leading her three children back into the main house, all of them wrapped in towels and a sour expression on their faces.

“Why yes it is, me and mah husband adop-”

“How much?” asked Delilah Sunlight, cutting off Pear Butter.

“Beg yer pardon?” 

“The dragon, how much for him?” 

Pear Butter could only blink in astonishment at the mare standing before her.

“I can sense your confusion, allow me to elaborate. Recently a neighbor of mine has gotten a rare blue-nosed jackalope as a pet and it has been the talk of the town ever since, I’ve been wanting a creature of my own that is even more rare than that to be able to outshine him. That dragon of yours seems like the perfect candidate, so well trained and small enough to keep inside the house. He is housebroken correct?”

At this point Pear Butter’s face was frozen in a spot between shock and rage at this mare’s words.

“Well even if he isn’t I know a few trainers that could fix that up right away, so name your price, money is no object.”

It took Pear Butter a few minutes to regain her senses but when she did she said “Spike isn’t fer sale.”

“I don’t think you understand, I am willing to pay any price you name for that dragon.” said Delilah, the mare not willing to take no for an answer

“And ah don’t think ya understand that he isn’t fer sale, he’s mah son.” said Pear Butter, more forcefully this time

“Oh you country ponies and your quaint little habits, treating a beast like him like family.” Delilah said with a patronizing chuckle “but even somepony of your lacking intellect could understand that I am offering an enormously large sum to you for it, likely higher than you can count.” 

That was the straw that broke the pony’s back, Pear Butter wasn’t about to just stand there and let this mare talk down to her family like this.

Adopting a blank expression, Pear Butter wordlessly turned around so that her back legs were facing Delilah Sunshine, reared up, and bucked her as hard as she possibly could right in the face.

The mare was sent flying several yards in the air, impacting with an apple tree face first so hard that her shocked expression left an imprint upon the bark. Then Pear grabbed Delilah by the tail and dragged her all the way out to the main road, roughly dropping the pony back to the ground

“Tell yer father that he’s gonna have to find somepony else to cater his fancy party, nopony talks that way about mah family and gets away with it!” shouted Pear Butter.

“You inbred freak!” spat Delilah, throwing a tantrum from her spot in the dirt “I’ll tell everypony in Canterlot what you’ve done to me, I’ll have this farm shut down!”

“Go ahead! None of yer snobbish friends are ever welcome here ever again!” Pear Butter yelled back “we don’t need yer business anyhow, now git! Before ah buck ya a second time!”

“You-you-you, ARGH!” Delilah sputtered before limping down the road in defeat.

Pear Butter huffed and stormed back towards the farmhouse, feeling a deep sense of satisfaction from what she just had done; only for those feelings to melt away when she saw that everypony was staring at her from the front porch, having clearly heard every word she had just said to the mare.

“Ma, why didja hit that mare in the face?” asked Spike.

Pear butter rubbed Spike’s head fin soothingly, struggling to come up with a good answer.

“because she wanted to hurt ya spike.” said Pear Butter

“So if somepony tries to hurt applejack or big mac, ah should hit them?”

Pear Butter looked towards Granny for reassurance and the elderly mare nodded in approval.

“Yes, if anypony tries to hurt yer siblings ya can hit em and ah won’t punish ya. Now how about we get lunch started? Ya’ll must be hungry.” 

“Ooh, can ah help?” asked Big Mac enthusiastically

“Sure, sugarcube. Just wait fer me in the kitchen.” replied Pear Butter.

Big Mac smiled and ran back into the house, Applejack and Spike quickly following after him.

“Ya know that mare was lucky she ran into you and not me, ah woulda bucked her clear into the next town over.” said Bright Mac.

“Thanks bright mac, though ah might have cost us some new customers.”

Bright Mac waved a dismissive hoof towards her “please, we’ve gotten along jus fine without em. Ah don’t wanna do business with ponies like that anyhow, now let's get started on that meal, ah’m starving.”

As the couple walked back into the house, the mail stallion started to make his rounds and picked up a certain letter out of Sweet Apple Acre’s mailbox


******************************



A few days later...in Manehatten


“Huh, a letter from Pear Butter. I wonder what the occasion is” said Aunt Orange, pulling open her sister’s letter.

Her eyes quickly scanned over the messy handwriting and Aunt Orange grew confused.

“Wait what?”

“What is it honey?” said Mosely Orange

“I just received a letter from Pear Butter, apparently she wants Applejack to stay with us for a while, apparently the filly needs a change of scenery but I don’t understand why she would send applejack here of all-” Aunt Orange stopped mid way through her sentence as her eyes widened in realization, a smile growing on her lips “oh that sneaky mare, she was always the clever one. Mosely, prepare the guest room, our niece shall be staying with us for some time.”

“What? Aunt Orange do you really think it’s a good idea to-” the stallion was silenced by a hoof to his lips.

“Don’t worry about our social life, I know what Pear Butter is trying to accomplish here, you just have to trust us.” said Aunt Orange 

“As you wish” said Mosely Orange, leaving Aunt Orange alone in the room as she began to write her response to pear, saying how she would love to have Applejack over, a mischievous smile still dancing on her lips.

‘Oh this shall be an absolute delight.’ Aunt Orange thought to herself, scribbling the words down onto the page.
> lost in manehattan
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Aj, sugar, are ya awake?” said Pear Butter, poking her head into her daughter’s room.

The blonde filly in question lifted her head up to meet her mother’s soft gaze, ears perking at the sound of her voice. 

For the past hour or so, Applejack had been laying face down on her bed with forlorn thoughts filling her head; the more she thought about it, the more she realized that she would probably end up spending the rest of her life at Sweet Apple Acres, doomed to be nothing more than a simple farmer pony until she was all old and grey like Granny Smith was. The elderly mare seemed dead set on having her inherit the farm from her parents who clearly wanted the little filly to work alongside them when she was all grown up; but she knew she could stand up to them, she was a tough little filly, what really was keeping her from saying anything was her brothers. Big Mac and Spike cared a whole lot about her, possibly even more so than her parents did: The older colt, while a complete chatterbox, was the best big brother a filly could ask for, when she scraped her knees or had a nightmare and ma and pa weren’t around, Big Mac was the one who made it all better or at least tried his best to do so.

While Big Mac was the responsible older brother, Spike was the one she could have fun with, the one that would spend hours running around playing hide and seek in the apple orchids with her, the one that would scale the kitchen cabinets to get at the apple fritters Granny Smith put on the top shelf to keep out of reach for her, the one who always happily went along with whatever mischief she wanted to get into if she asked him; Spike wasn’t just her brother, he was her best friend. 

To say that they would be devastated if she left would be an understatement; Big Mac would completely lose his head over worrying about her and Spike would simply be crushed, his heart shattered by the loss of his best friend in the world.

She knew she wanted to leave, that she was destined for something beyond just harvesting apples, but her love for her family made it a difficult decision to make. A decision she didn’t quite feel like sharing with ma at this time.

The orange filly gave a small nod in reply

Pear Butter used one of her back hooves to gently shut the door behind her as she walked over to her daughter’s bed.

“Aj, me and Bright Mac have noticed that lately that ya’ve been actin stranger than a cat in a corduroy suit and we jus wanted ta make sure yer okay.” 

“Ah’m…..ah’m fine ma” Said Applejack unconvincingly

“Now Applejack, Ah ain’t raisin no liar.” Said Pear Butter, giving the filly the ‘mom’ glare.

Applejack let out a huff, there was no way she was resisting that look “well it’s jus that….ah don’t know if ah wanna stay on the farm.”

“What do ya mean?”

“Ah know ya’ll want me to work on the farm when ah’m older but ah don’t want that. Ah wanna see the world!” Applejack explained “Places like Las Pegasus, Fillydelphia, and Vanhoover”

Pear Butter cringed slightly at that last one, knowing what or rather who was likely waiting for her there. 

“Ah wanna be an adventurer! Not a downhome farm pony like the rest of ya’ll are.” 

“Sugarcube.” said Pear Butter, pulling her daughter into a gentle embrace “why didn’t ya say something sooner? We would have understood.”

“Maybe, but Big Mac and Spike wouldn’t.”

Applejack did have a point there. While Pear, Bright Mac, and Granny smith were fairly reasonable (although Pear Butter was a tad confuddled by the ‘zap apple’ ritual Granny Smith performed every year), Spike and Big Mac were very different; even a pony blinder than a bat could see that those two cared about their sister more than anything else in the world and would lose their minds if anything bad ever happened to her, they were thicker than thieves and just as mischievous.

Pear Butter started to hesitate, she actually hadn’t considered how her sons would react to the news of Applejack going away to Manehattan; at best they’d be heartbroken and at worst…..well the farmer mare didn’t even want to think about that. But she had to do it, she had already sent the letter and it was the only way for Applejack to truly understand what she wanted for herself, no matter the consequences that would follow.

Swallowing the lump in her throat, Pear Butter began to speak “well Applejack, yer pa and I have been discussin it lately and we thought that it might be good fer ya ta have a change of surroundings.”

Applejack merely blinked in confusion at her mother

“See I had a bit of a chat with Aunt Orange and she said…..”


********************************


“Yer going to Manehattan?!” Spike exclaimed, chunks of apple spraying out of his mouth.

Granny Smith brought a wooden spoon down onto the baby dragon’s head with an audible smack, causing him to howl and rub the sizeable red spot forming on his scales.

“Don’t talk with yer mouth full!” said the elderly mare, before turning back towards the cooking pot.

“Sorry granny.” Spike replied, after swallowing his food.

It was the morning after Pear Butter had informed Applejack of the little trip she was taking and the filly had spent all of last night packing her bags, she agreed with her mother to keep the true intent of the journey itself a secret from her brothers and pass it off as a vacation; if nothing else, that little white lie would delay any emotional pain that would be invoked in Big Mac and Spike when they learned that their sister wasn’t going to come back.

Or so applejack thought….

“Yes Spike, Applejack is going away to Manehattan for a spell.” said Bright Mac, taking a bite of his eggs.

“Why does she get to go and not us?” asked Big Mac.

“Don’t tell me ya’ll forgot about the noodle incident.” Granny Smith remarked with a frown.

Spike shot up from his chair so quickly you’d think it was on fire, “NOPONY CAN PROVE WE DID THAT!” 

“The royal guard might disagree with ya on that one.”

Spike grumbled as he shoved another apple slice into his mouth, it wasn’t his fault things happened the way they did; he didn’t push the big red button.

“So uh, how long is she gonna be gone fer?” Big Mac interjected.

“Bout a week, m-maybe two.” said Bright Mac, suddenly finding the apple trees visible from the kitchen window very interesting “depends on how long Aunt Orange will have her.”

If there’s one thing Bright Mac was downright terrible at, it was lying. From the day he was born, Granny Smith set about hammering a good sense of morals into his head, the most significant of these being to always be honest with everypony. Sure Pear Butter seemed to know what she was doing and he trusted her judgement, but he still couldn’t shake the overwhelming feeling of dishonesty crawling on his back that weren’t helped by the fact that he was lying to his sons of all ponies and er….. dragons.

“Anyhow.” Said Pear Butter, trying to cover for her husband’s not-so subtle deception “ya’ll had better get yerselves cleaned up right quick if ya wanna see yer sister off at the train station, she’s leavin today.”

“Wait if she’s leaving today, then who’s doing all of her chores while she’s gone?” Spike asked.

Granny looked over her shoulder at the baby dragon with a smile commonly found on the cat that ate the canary.

It took Spike a second to catch on to exactly what she was implying “aww. Why me? Can’t Big Mac do em?”

“Sorry Spike but yer older brother is gonna be learning how to plow the fields this week with me an with Pear Butter tendin to the trees, yer the only one who can pick up the slack.” Said Bright Mac. “Now hustle yer flanks, we don’t want Applejack to miss her train.”

“Yes pa.” Spike replied, putting away his dirty dishes and trotting upstairs alongside Big Nac.

Once the dynamic duo of the Apple family were out of earshot, Bright Mac turned to address his wife.

“Still doesn’t feel right, lying to em all like this.”

“Mac we both know that those two would pitch a fit loud enough to be heard all the way over in Canterlot if they thought Applejack wasn’t going to come back.” said Pear Butter “Trust me, this is fer the best.”

“Ah know. Ah know.” Bright Mac then looked over towards his daughter. “So yer all packed up? Got everything ya need? Cause ya won’t be back here for awhile.”

Applejack nodded in reply, plopping her saddlebags onto the table, though it took nearly all of her willpower to stop herself from bouncing in her seat. She was getting to live in Manehattan, the big apple, of all places; she’d heard plenty of stories about small town ponies who went there and made it big, like Aunt Orange did, she went there with nothing but what she could carry on her saddle bags and was now a ‘socialite’....whatever that meant, Applejack had heard her mother use the word alot to describe Aunt Orange. Plus there was all the sights to see there: The Mare statue, Bridleway, Manehattan Park, the Manefair Hotel, Saddle Row, Carneighie Hall, The Manehattan Museum of Art, Madisoat Square Garden, Madison Mare Garden, and many more! There’d be so much to do, so much to see! She might just have to take the backstreets to visit them all, nothing wrong with it.

But there was still something that was gnawing at the back of her mind, a small part of her trying to tell her that this wasn’t what she was meant to do, but her excitement over going to the largest city in Equestria completely eclipsed it.

“Good.” said Bright Mac “BOYS! YA’LL READY?!” 

“Almost pa, we...we jus need to finish brushing our teeth!” Spike nervously shouted from upstairs.

It was at that moment that Bright Mac took notice of the small waterfall running down the stairs, forming a growing puddle on the rug at the bottom.

The father of three could only groan “not again, ya wanna take this one Pear? Or should ah do it?”

Pear Butter responded by calmly trotting upstairs in a quiet fury, a series of shouts and banging sounds resonated from upstairs moments later, followed shortly by Pear Butter roughly dragging her two soaking wet sons downstairs.

“When we come back, ya’ll are scrubbing that bathroom til it shines brighter than Luna’s moon. Understand?”

Big Mac and Spike silently nodded.

“Good, now let’s head out everypony.”


***********************


It didn’t take very long for the Apple family to reach the train station, it was practically right down the road from Sweet Apple Acres, and they collectively decided that if there was any final goodbyes they wanted to get out before Applejack was gone, now would be a good time.

“Now remember, ya call us as soon as ya git to yer Aunt Orange’s place” said Pear Butter, rubbing some stray dirt of the filly’s cheek with her hoof

“Yes ma.” Applejack replied.

“And stay outta trouble, ya hear? Manehattan can be a dangerous place.” said Bright Mac.

“Okay pa.”

“And could ya bring us a souvenir? Ah’ve always wanted to see Manehattan” said Spike.

“Since when? Ah’ve never heard ya talk about it.” Big Mac added.

“Well ah….”

“Oh will ya’ll just let the little filly git along?” Granny Smith said, bringing her granddaughter into a hug. “hope ya have a good time in the city young un.”

“Thanks granny” Applejack replied, returning the embrace only to break away at the sound of the train horn piercing the air.

“Next train to Manehattan, now boarding!” the conductor shouted.

“That’s fer me, ah gotta go!” said Applejack, engaging in one final group hug with the rest of her family before running off to the train to her new beginning.

As the train whistle blew and the locomotive started chugging along the track, Applejack leaned out the window and waved goodbye to her family and by extension Ponyville.

“BYE EVERYPONY! SEE YA’LL AROU-”

“STOP LEANING OUT THE WINDOW!!” The conductor screamed, cutting her off “I DON’T NEED A DUMB FOAL FALLING ONTO THE TRACKS AGAIN!”

Applejack quickly withdrew back into the train compartment, slightly embarrassed by what she had just done if the blush on her freckled cheeks was anything to go by.

The train began to shrink further and further into the distance until finally it disappeared onto the horizon, leaving the remaining members of the Apple family standing on the train station platform in relative silence.

Bright Mac leaned over to Pear Butter and whispered in her ear “so uh, how long until-”

“Ah give her bout a week, maybe less. Depends on how soon she realizes the high life ain’t all that.” the mare whispered back.


**************************


Applejack could barely contain herself once the sprawling metropolis that was Manehattan came into view, it had been a long and boring train ride; every pony on board were either boring old business ponies who needed to do business things in Manehattan or obnoxious tourists who kept going on and on about what they were going to do when they arrived in Manehattan and insisting on showing off the various knicknacks they had gathered from their travels, many of them very strange (seriously, who spends their hard earned bits on a tissue that might have been used by Princess Celestia?). Combine that with the fact that there was virtually nothing to keep a young farmer filly occupied aboard the train and Applejack was like a caged animal just itching to get out. When the train did finally pull into the station, Applejack broke into a full sprint and was the very first one off the train, paying no attention to the glares and rude remarks she received as she pushed passed several ponies on the way out.

Her eyes glistened at the massive structure she now found herself in; above her head were the words ‘Gallop Central Station’ carved into the stone wall, massive windows letting in the rays of the midday sun surrounded her on all sides, marble pillars that reached up to the ceiling like massive oak trees, it almost felt like she had stepped into a fairytale castle.

“Applejack! Darling, over here!” shouted a rather refined voice.

The filly looked over to see her Manehattan Aunt waving her hoof in the air, trying to get her attention. In response, Applejack immediately ran over and gave the mare a big hug.

“Aunt Orange!” Applejack exclaimed.

“Hello Applejack, I hope you had a pleasant trip” said Aunt Orange, returning the hug with earnest

“Eh….” 

“What? Did something bad hap-”

“HONEY LOOK!” a middle aged mare in the tackiest outfit imaginable with a camera cutie mark shouted to her presumed husband in a similar getup “THEY’VE GOT BOTTLES WITH LITTLE TRAINS IN EM IN THE GIFT SHOP, LET’S GET TEN!”

Suddenly, Aunt Orange understood why her niece may not have had the best journey here.

“Feh, tourists. Just ignore them sweetie, let’s get you to your new accommodations and please do be polite to your uncle when you meet him.”

With that, Aunt Orange led applejack out onto the street and let out a shrill whistle.

“TAXI!” 

A yellow and black checkered carriage drawn by a rather gruff looking pony seemed to pop up out of the plethora of carts rushing around the building and came to a screeching halt in front of the pai‍r.

Aunt Orange climbed in first and motioned for applejack to follow her “20 Ingram street please.”

The gruff pony nodded in acknowledgement and began to pull the cart back into the fray that was Manehattan traffic.

As they made their way through the stop and go streets, Applejack decided to take the opportunity to observe her new surroundings and boy oh boy did manehattan live up to it’s expectations: Tall skyscrapers surrounded her on all sides like a jungle of steel, glass, and concrete; shops lined the streets ranging from small grocery stores, jewelry stores, themed restaurants, and even disco pants and haircuts, all covered in a rainbow of paints and stones that only added to the dazzling look of the city; hundreds of ponies walking around, covering the sidewalks like swarms of ants and acting just as chaotic and disorganized but far from boring, when they passed through Bridleway Applejack saw a pony wearing nothing but a speedo, cowpony boots with a matching hat, and a guitar slung over his back, more fictional characters than she could count, and she could have sworn that she saw a pony in a strange red and blue suit hanging upside down from a street light by some kind of thread.

With every landmark she got more and more excited about her stay in Manehattan, the objecting voice in the back of her head was getting quieter and quieter until it seemed to go silent when they arrived in front of Aunt Orange’s home; a quaint little apartment building built out of plain red brick, the simplistic and blocky architecture seemed to greatly contrast with the picturesque style of the rest of the city but Applejack tried to ignore it.

‘Like granny always says, it’s what’s on the inside that counts.’ Applejack thought to herself, stepping into the building.

One short elevator ride up later, Applejack came to Aunt Orange’s apartment building. A quick knock on the door summoned her husband Mosely Orange, who answered the door with a smile.

“Applejack, it’s wonderful to see you again!”

“It’s good ta see ya too” said Applejack, walking into the well decorated apartment, taking notice of all the refined furniture that would have dazzled most guests; but on Applejack it just seemed….boring.

“Come on let’s show you to your room.” said Aunt Orange, leading Applejack down the hall towards the guest room.

It wasn’t really much to write home about; it had a bed, a dresser, a closet, a small desk in the corner, everything any temporary visitor might need.

“Thank ya’ll so much fer lettin me stay.” said Applejack as she tossed her saddlebags onto the bed spread.

Aunt Orange chuckled at that, “ya’ll. Isn’t she just the living end?”

“How quaint” said Mosely Orange in agreement.

Aunt Orange reached down and ran her hoof through Applejack’s messy blonde hair, mussing it up playfully “Don’t worry we’ll have you acting like a true Manhattanite in no time.”

“But for now, we’ll leave you alone to get settled in.”

With that, the pair walked out and left the filly all alone in her new room.

Applejack could only flop down onto her bed with a smile, she was finally here, the city where anypony could make it big; although she didn’t know what she was gonna do first, there were so many opportunities for her out here.

‘Who knows, ah might even get mah cutie mark.’ Applejack thought to herself.

Only two things were certain: it was going to be a great week and she was going to love living in manehattan.


******************************


‘This has been the worst week of mah life, ah hate livin here.’

These were the thoughts that ran through Applejack’s head as she gazed out the window, overlooking the urban sprawl.

From the very first day, Aunt and Uncle Orange had tried to completely reshape the filly into a ‘refined pony’. Changing her long flowing mane into a tight and uncomfortable bun that iched more than one of Goldie Delicious’ cat hair sweaters (Applejack could never quite understand why she made them out of cat hair when she used yarn for everything else), but it didn’t stop there; she had to walk a certain way, talk a certain way, act a certain way, it was all so suffocating. She couldn’t even go outside because according to Uncle Orange ‘high class fillies don’t play in the streets’ and instead spent most of her time inside, reading dusty old books clearly written for foals. Then there was the food, almost every evening it was a single shred of lettuce garnished with some lima beans; except on sundays when it was topped with carrot slices instead. She couldn’t sustain herself on stuff like that, it barely even qualified as a snack, her tummy had been rumbling almost constantly. Not to mention all the ‘extra-curricular’ activities that Aunt Orange insisted she participated in; piano, ballet, swimming, painting, and many other things that she’d probably never even use all of them with cranky old teachers.

To make things worse, Applejack was getting terribly homesick as well; she missed Granny Smith’s stories, she missed her mother’s delicious baking, she missed snuggling up with her father by the fireplace, she missed sharing an apple with her brother Big Mac, she missed playing in the mud with Spike, she missed the way the apple trees glistened in the sunlight as that big yellow ball called the sun came over the hills, the way the rooster crowed at dawn to wake everypony up for the day, the way the farm looked, felt, and smelled. She missed it all.

The little voice that had tried to tell her that she didn’t belong her was now at the forefront of her mind and was screaming louder than a diving hawk.

The sun soon began to rise over the mountains in the distance, showering light over the city but it just wasn’t the same as it was at home.

“Cock-a-doodle-doo... Oh, ah wonder what Ma and Pa are up to. Ah bet they're applebuckin' their way through the Red Delicious trees right now. Oh, what ah wouldn't give fer jus’ one bite…” Applejack said forlornly, she had never felt worse in her whole life.

But that’s when it happened.

A loud boom echoed across the landscape and nearly made Applejack fall on her flank in surprise.

Quickly recovering, the filly’s eyes scanned the horizon in an attempt to find the source of the explosion and was met with the most beautiful rainbow she had even seen stretching across the sky, touching down directly…..

She squinted her eyes in an attempt to get a better look at exactly where the rainbow touched down.

Taking notice of a very familiar looking farmhouse, flanked by a barn, it only took Applejack mere seconds to figure out what she was honed in on.

‘Home’ she thought to herself.

This had to be a sign from Celestia herself, trying to tell the filly something important and all at once it came to her; what she was meant to do and where she really belonged.

“Aunt Orange! Ah changed mah mind, Ah wanna go home!” Applejack exclaimed, running around as fast as she could to pack up her things.

They had made it back to Gallop Central Station in record time, Aunt Orange trying and failing to put back up Applejack’s hair as they traveled over.

“Are you sure this is what you want Applejack?” said Aunt Orange.

“Positive, ah hate livin here, ah miss mah family, ah miss the farm, ah jus’ wanna go home.” Applejack replied, clearly eager to get on the train back to Ponyville.

Aunt Orange could only knowingly smile “well if you’re that sure, then by all means don’t let me stop you.”

Applejack hopped on the train back home and waved goodbye to her Aunt Orange.

“THANKS AGAIN FER HAVIN ME! AH’LL TRY TO VIS-”

“KID! I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU NOT TO LEAN OUT THE CELESTIA DARNED WINDOW!” the conductor shouted.

The blonde filly quickly darted her head back inside the train cart, leaving her aunt standing on the train station platform with a happy expression dancing across her lips.

“She really is Pear Butter’s daughter” the Manehattanite said to herself, turning around to head home “thought I wonder if I should tell any of the ponies I hired for her various activities that I was only using them to make my niece realize she didn’t belong here…..hmm.”


******************************


Spike sat on the outer fence of Sweet Apple Acres, just like he had done for the past couple of days.

After Applejack left it didn’t take long for him to start missing his playmate.

Sure he still had Big Macintosh but he wasn’t the same as Applejack, he wasn’t the same playful filly that Spike loved to mud wrestle with, he just couldn’t pal around with the dragon like Applejack could.

About two days after Applejack went onto her vacation to Manehattan, Spike started spending the better part of the day waiting for her on the edge of the farm; he’d do all of his chores for the day, help his parents when he could, and then just hung around the outer edge with his gaze focused on the horizon, hoping to see the orange filly come running over the hills. Both Pear Butter and Bright Mac had tried to convince him to go inside, play with some other colts and fillies but Spike wouldn’t have it; he just sat in silence, waiting. Sometimes Big Mac came out to join him for a bit before heading back into the house, neither one saying a word to the other.

Spike knew that his brother missed Applejack almost as much as he did, constantly asking about letters from their sister and when she was coming back. He was clearly worried about her.

“Bit fer yer thoughts Spike?” Said Granny Smith approaching from behind with some apple muffins.

Taking one from the elderly mare’s hooves, Spike sighed “ah really miss her granny.”

“Ah know, Ah know but she’s gonna be back at the end of the week.” Granny Smith replied.

“Is she? Ah’m startin to think that ma and pa lies to us.”

A small sweat drop ran down the side of the Apple matriarch’s head “What, uh, what makes ya say that?”

“Well whenever ah ask if they know when Applejack comes back, they get all nervous like and tell me to be patient. Are they lying to us Granny? Is Applejack never comin back?”

“Young un just listen to yer parents, cause there ain’t much else ya can do sides’ be….well speak of Discord.” said Granny Smith, jutting a hoof out to the horizon.

Spike looked over to seek a growing speck just down the road, right where granny smith was pointing. As it got closer he noticed that the speck was a very familiar shade of blonde and orange, one with sparkling green eyes similar to his own.

“Applejack?” said Spike in disbelief “APPLEJACK!”

The baby dragon quickly hopped off the fence and started running towards his sister, arms stretched open wide for a hug. One that the farmer filly gladly accepted when the two collided with each other.

“Yer back! Yer back! Yer back!” Spike chanted, hopping up and down.

“Ah’m back! Ah’m back! Ah’m back!” Applejack chanted in unison.

“Applejack!” shouted Big Mac, galloping over to give his sister another hug. “It’s so good ta see ya again!”

“Same here mac! Oh ah missed ya’ll so much!” 

Soon enough the grown-ups came out to welcome Applejack back with, you guessed it folks, a big old hug.

As they had their daughter in an embrace, Bright Mac leaned over and whispered in Pear Butter’s ear “ya knew this was gonna happen didn’t ya?”

“Why do ya think ah became a farmer? Never could stand city life.” Pear Butter replied with a slightly smug smile.

That’s about the time Spike noticed something different about Applejack, a certain mark on her flank that wasn’t previously there. 

“Applejack, look!” the dragon exclaimed.

Applejack craned her head around to try and get a look at what Spike was pointing to and almost instantly her eyes started to sparkle; right there on her flank was a set of three apples in a triangle formation, still glowing from their materialization.

“Mah cutie mark!”

“Well it seems somepony was meant ta be on the farm after all.” said Granny Smith.

Applejack smiled and was brought back into the group hug with her family, she knew that everything was going to be alright, she was finally where she truly belonged.

Of course just because Applejack found herself didn’t mean things were going to calm down at Sweet Apple Acres because of it; no, soon the apple siblings would soon have to face the greatest challenge of their young lives.

SCHOOL.
> school days
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Now remember what ah told ya’ll; no talkin ta strangers, look both ways before ya cross the street, an’ when ya’ll git outta school ya come right home ya hear?” said Pear Butter, wiping some stray muck off of Spike’s cheek with a dirty rag

“Yes ma.” the baby dragon, colt, and filly replied, still slightly out of breath.

The first day of school was always a big event in the life of any pony, or dragon in this case; taking the first steps into becoming a full grown adult, Big Mac had already started school a couple of years before and now it was Applejack and Spike’s turn.

Although their morning could have gone much smoother, as it was a complete and utter train wreck from start to finish.

First of all, Pear Butter and Bright Mac had a rather rough time toiling away in the fields yesterday and were completely and utterly exhausted as a result, so much so that they completely slept through the rooster’s morning crows and because they didn’t wake up neither did Applejack, Spike, or Big Mac. When the parents of the apple family finally did return to the waking world, it was in a complete panic at the realization that their kin were going to be late for their first day of school.

Then it was a mad dash to get them all cleaned and ready, (admittedly smearing toothpaste on toast to save time wasn’t the brightest of ideas), throwing their lunches together with whatever apple products they already had on hand, and full on sprinting to the school house; for whatever reason it seemed that everything was bent on stopping them from reaching schoolhouse.

First it was that runaway cart of candy; then a windowsill garden nearly falling directly on top of Spike, followed by a grand piano that narrowly missed him as well; then there was a bunny drive that they had to push their way through; then a pear demon materializing on main street, which Pear Butter and Bright Mac heroically fought off; and lastly, a massive rainstorm coming out of seemingly nowhere.

But in the end they had still made it to school on time, completely out of breath and soaked to the bone, but on time.

“An’ try ta make some friends with the other foals, ah know ya’ll are attached ta each other but ya need ta put yerselves out there, ya can’t have yer family be yer ONLY friends after all.” said Bright Mac.

“Okay pa, we’ll try.” said Spike, prompting a smile from the workhorse.

“Good. Have a great day, all of ya’ll.” said Bright Mac, playfully tousling his children’s hair and headfin. “An’ Mac, watch out fer yer brother and sister today, alright?”

Big Macintosh gave his father a dutiful salute, earning a chuckle for his display.

On that note the elder apples left both of their foals standing at the outer edge of the school yards, facing towards their futures with uncertainty.

They hadn’t lived a sheltered life on the farm, far from it, it was just that neither of them had a lot of experience socializing with other foals. Sure Applejack had met a few in Manehattan but they were just as vain and full of themselves as their parents, nothing like the humble folk in Ponyville….or at least she hoped so.

Spike wasn’t any less anxious than her sister, being a dragon and all meant he was going to stand out right away amongst all the other foals in class whether he liked it or not….and if he was going to like it or not was something that was yet to be seen.

Taking notice of his sibling’s discomfort, he laid a hoof on each of their shoulders.

“Hey, ya’ll don’t need ta be worried. School ain’t that bad, ah’ve been going her fer two years now,  ya’ll will fit in like a glove.” said the eldest apple sibling.

Right then a random colt shouted “FILLY FIGHT!”

The farmer trio look over towards the source of the noise and was met with the sight of a pair of fillies beating the everloving snot out of each other; one being a earth pony with a light grey coat, a dark grey mane, and a violet treble clef, who was wearing a white t-shirt that said ‘#1 daugher’ on the front and was beating the other filly over the head with a violin; said filly happened to be a unicorn with a white coat, a blue mane and a set of musical notes on her flank, wearing a red bow tie and purple tinted sunglasses who was slamming her hooves into her attackers chest. All the while the foals around them were chanting:

“FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!”

Spike and Applejack could only stare at their brother incredulously.

“Ah swear isn’t usually not like this….” Big Mac said, rather unconvincingly.


**********************


“Hey is that a dragon?!” said a filly

That was the very first thing Spike and Applejack heard when they walked into the classroom, since Big Mac was two grades above them he was in another class entirely but he promised to meet up with the duo during recess.

Not that they needed him, even with the savage brawl that had occured moments ago, both Spike and Applejack were confident they could hold their own in a fight against a couple of their classmates; but against the entire class was a different story.

And with nearly every set of eyes on the poor dragon in looked like things might have to play out that way.

Spike started to back away towards the door, maybe he’d be able to convince ma and pa to homeschool him, only for something warm and slightly wet to poke him in the back.

Turning around Spike saw a set of blue eyes mere inches from his own and jumped up in surprise, landing on his butt in the process.

“Wowie zowie! I’ve never gotten to meet a dragon before!” said the creature.

From his spot on the floor, Spike managed to get a better look at just what exactly had invaded his personal space; it was a earth pony filly with bubblegum pink fur and a mane that bared a striking resemblance to cotton candy, smelled like it too.

“Hi there! My name’s Pinkie Pie! The greatest super duper happiest party pony in ponyville! What’s your name?” The filly Said, literally jumping up and down in place.

“Ah’m Spike.” the baby dragon replied, the initial shock of the situation wearing off only to be replaced with utter befuddlement at this filly’s mannerism.

“Nice to meet ya Spike!” Pinkie replied before shoving a hoof into her mane and pulling out a frosted pastry “here have a friendship cupcake.”

Spike looked back and forth between the miniature cake and the filly’s mane. “How did ya-”


Pinkie Pie quickly shoved the cupcake into Spike’s mouth, silencing him while simultaneously smearing the icing across his face.

“Shhh, just enjoy the cupcake.”

As strange as the situation was, Spike had to admit that the cupcake that had just been force fed to him was REALLY good.

The dragon got back onto his feet with the intent of thanking Pinkie Pie, but was stopped by ten or so foals surrounding him at once, asking him all manner of questions.

“Can you breath fire?”

“Do dragons really eat gems?”

“Why don’t you have wings?”

“Can I touch your scales?”

They slowly but surely began to close in on him, leaving the poor baby dragon with less and less breathing room.

Applejack had been shoved aside when the foals had surged forth and every instinct in her body was screaming at her to get her brother out of there, but no matter how hard she tried the filly couldn’t seem to push her way into the crowd and they were too enamoured by the newest addition to the class to pay attention to her shouts of protest.

Thankfully, if by fate or divine intervention, an older mare arrived to put a stop to the situation.

“WHAT IN THE SAM HECK IS GOING ON HERE?!” Bellowed the mare.

Almost immediately the classroom was swept into a dead silence, as if the grim reaper himself had enter the room.

The mare standing there in the doorway was a rather heavyset pony with a yellow coat and a grey mane that clearly had received too much hairspray, her face showed clear signs of age between her wrinkled squinting eyes that hid behind a pair of black pointed spectacles, lips coated in red lipstick and pearl earrings through her ears, and a small whistle dangling around her neck; the look on her face would make a bulldog look like a bunny.

“All of you, get back in your seats right now!” 

The foals quickly dissipated from the crowd and ran towards their respective assigned seats, lest they incite their teachers wrath.

It was at that moment that the teacher noticed the dragon still standing right in front of her, causing her to squint her eyes further at the lizard.

“A dragon? Wait a minute, you’re Big Mac’s brother aren’t you?” the mare gruffly said.

The baby dragon nodded, still greatly intimidated by the mare.

She then turned towards Applejack “and you must be his little sister Applejack.”

Applejack nodded as she tried to swallow down the lump that had formed in her throat.

“I’ve heard a whole lot about you two from him, but don’t think you can pull one over me. I’ve got my eyes on both of you, now sit down.”

The duo very nearly stumbled over each other getting to their seats; thankfully their desks were right next to each other but unfortunately for Spike, he also had to sit next to Pinkie Pie who had a smile like she had been told it was going to be hearth’s warming every day.

“Now then, since you’ve all quieted down I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Ms.Finster and I’ll be your teacher for the school year; now I will not tolerate any sort of tomfoolery or horseplay in my classroom, you are here to learn not to goof off now….”

It was at that moment that Spike started to tune out the mare’s rant, just his luck that he gets a cranky teacher on the first day of school but at least he had his sister right by his side to suffer along with him.

Suddenly he felt a gentle bump on the back of his head, as if something soft had just hit him. When he looked back he saw a small, crumpled ball of paper with the words ‘read me’ written on it was the source of the blow.

The dragon quickly unwrapped the paper and immediately frowned at the message:

‘Is it true that dragons eat ponies?’

Spike looked around the room in attempt to find who had thrown the wad at him and his eyes landed on a small filly with a raspberry coat and a light amber mane with a lily flower tucked into it who was looking at him intensely with a mixture of curiosity and fear.

In retrospect, shooting her a firm glare and using his fire breath to reduce the note to ashes may have not been the best action to take but the dragon was still cheesed off about the class mobbing him moments ago.

The filly immediately let out a fearful squeak and sank down in her desk, cowering behind her desk.

‘Maybe that was a mite marsh.’ Spike thought to himself as the initial irritation wore off ‘ah mean ma an’ pa said Ah’m the only baby dragon fer miles around, most ponies would be cur-‘

“SPIKE!”

The dragon jumped out of his seat as Ms.Finster’s stern voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

“Care to explain why you felt like burning paper in my classroom?” 

Spike’s eyes started darting around sporadically, he couldn’t get in trouble on the first day! Ma and pa would give him an earful if he did, he had to fib and do it fast.

“Well uh… ya see us dragons are cold-blooded which means we need ta burn stuff every now an’ then to keep our body heat up.” Spike stammered out.

Ms.Finster looked out the window at the bright sunny day outside, without a single cloud in the sky, and then back at the dragon with a look that just screamed ‘I am not buying this.’.

One of the many things that Spike had picked up from his adopted parents was a deep seated sense of honesty towards others, unfortunately that also meant that he was an absolutely terrible liar.

“Really? That’s the best you could come up with? In case you’ve forgotten it’s still summertime. Now normally something like this would warrant you being in detention for the next month or so but since it’s the first day of school, I’m willing to cut you a break and let you off with a warning. But if you ever pull a stunt like that again, you are going to be serving detention for the rest of your natural life you understand?”

Spike nodded, visibly shrinking back in fear at his teacher’s authoritarian presence.

“Good. Now then, where was I?” said Ms.Finster as she walked back to her desk.

That was when Spike noticed that a small little note had been taped to the mare’s backside which humorously read: ‘ms.party pooper’. Causing most of the students, Spike and Applejack included, to forcefully hold back their laughter at the sight of it lest they incur their teacher’s wrath.

The initials ‘PP’ signed in pink pen in the bottom right corner of the note gave Spike a fairly good idea of who had placed it there to begin with, he gave the filly a silent look of gratitude before turning his gaze back towards the front.

‘Yes, phase one of my plan to befriend the only dragon in ponyville is complete. The rest shall occur naturally.’ the party filly thought to herself as she started scribbling the rest of her friendship plot out.


************************


“Ah can’t believe ya’ll had to be in ms.finster’s class” said Big Macintosh.

It had been a few hours since the apple siblings had become acquainted with their new teachers, Big Mac was fortunate enough to get the much nicer Ms.Honey as his teacher as opposed to the hag that Spike and Applejack had to deal with, and were now sitting together under an old oak tree during every schoolfoal’s favorite part of the day: recess.

Unlike the rest of the foals who were playing on the playground equipment, the apple siblings had chosen to relax in the shade and talk about their first day; being joined by a rather enthusiastic guest.

“I can’t believe she didn’t notice that note I put on her flank.” said Pinkie Pie, tossing a cupcake back into her throat. “You’d think somepony would have pointed it out to her by now.”

During class, Spike had gone against his better judgement and started to discreetly talk with the pink filly to get to know her better and as it turned out she was actually really nice if a bit overly enthusiastic and they actually had quite a bit in common: they both loved the same type of mischief, they both loved pastries (Spike’s being more centered around apples), and they were both close to their families.

Sure Applejack was still wary of her, given Pinkie Pie’s first impression on the two being less than pleasant, but the farmer filly had started to come around after talking with the party pony a bit.

“Ah’m sorry but what did you say yer name was again?” said the eldest apple sibling.

“The name’s Pinkie Pie, serial prankster, master baker, and all around party pony. I grew up on a rock farm with my three sisters and my birthday is on-”

Big Mac groaned “an’ ah thought ah was a chatterbox.”

Unfortunately for the group, his displeasure went unnoticed as Pinkie Pie told them her entire life story while sparing no details.

For the second time today, Spike tuned out the ramblings of a crazy pony and started ponywatching the playground to survey the rest of his classmates from a distance.

From his field of vision, the dragon could see a colt with a spiky blonde mane talking to what looked like a tiger doll, a filly with an aquamarine coat using crayons to draw this weird monkey creature, a set of twins with miner goggles and helmets digging a massive hole in one corner of the playground in an attempt to get under the surrounding fence even though it’d be easier to climb over it, and a weird cross eyed filly who was smearing a muffin all over her face.

“HEY! GIVE THAT BACK!!!” a shrill voice rang out across the playground, yet failed to garner any attention.

Well apart from a certain dragon who snapped his head in the direction of the shout. 

What spike saw was an older colt, around Big Mac’s age, with a light brown mane with frosted tips and a light gold coat who was holding a small hair clip with a diamond attached to it just out of reach of a small filly with a curled indigo mane and a white coat, a set of diamonds on her flank, who was jumping up and trying to get back the hair clip in vain.

“Why don’t you make me cootie breath?” said the colt with a smug smirk, lifting the gem up every time the filly made a reach for it.

For some reason that colt’s behavior irked Spike, so much so that he decided he needed to do something about it.

Seeing that his siblings were still distracted by Pinkie Pie’s ramblings, the baby dragon stood up and walked over to the bully.

“Oh you brute, you ruffian, you big fat meanie!” the filly said, angry tears starting to sprout from her eyes as her face grew red.

“Ooh ouch, you’re so cutting, in fact I think I’m gonna go cry just like you, cry little filly.” said the colt in a mocking tone.

“Hey partner why don’t ya leave her alone?” said Spike coming up from behind.

The colt turned around to face the dragon and immediately frowned like he had just been presented with a rotten apple.

“And why don’t you mind your own business lizard?”


“Oh a lizard am I? Well at least ah’m not the kind of coward who picks on ponies half his size.” Spike said sternly.

The colt narrowed his eyes and jabbed a hoof into the dragon’s chest. “You had better take that back pal.”

“No way. Now you’d better give the filly her hair clip back”

“Or what?” mocked the colt, taking a step forward so he was right in the dragon’s face.

Summoning up the most intimidating glare that he could, Spike looked the colt dead in the eye “Or ah’ll MAKE you give it back.”

The colt weighed his options for a moment, sure he was bigger than the dragon but between the fire breath and claws that could cut through stone he’d probably end up on the losing side if things turned physical; not to mention that a large crowd of foals had started to gather around them and his reputation would take a nosedive if he was to get beaten up in front of everypony. In the end he decided the best course of action was to simply back down and get revenge on the dragon later.

Shoving the clip into the dragon’s chest the colt stormed off “whatever, it’s not like I was gonna keep it anyways.”

Seeing that there wasn’t going to be a fight anymore, the crowd quickly dispersed and went back to doing their own things; save for a trio of fillies, one of whom was the one who threw the note at spike in class, whispering amongst themselves while periodically shooting spike some worried glances.

But the baby dragon ignored them for now and walked over to the unicorn filly and handed back the hair clip.

“Here ya go.” said Spike “are ya okay?

“Um..yes, certainly.” replied the unicorn filly nervously, taking back the clip and placing it in her hair “I must thank you for coming to my aid like that.”

“No problem, what a jerk he was huh?” Spike replied “why was he givin ya a hard time anyhow?”

“Well he said he liked the hair clip that my mother had gotten me and when I wouldn’t give it to him he decided to take it, I think he even ripped a few strands of my mane.”

“Well ah don’t think he’ll be bothering ya anymore today, see ya round.”

But before he could take a single step the filly ran up beside him and took his hand in her hoof.

“Wait, before you go could I have your name?”

“Well ah’m Spike, ah live at Sweet Apple Acres with mah brother Big Macintosh, mah sister Applejack, Granny Smith, and mah ma and pa.” Spike said “what’s yer name?”

“Oh, I-I’m Rarity. It’s lovely to meet you Spike.” Rarity replied, a subtle blush spreading across her face. 

“Same to ya. Hey do you want come sit with me and mah siblings? We’d love the company.” offered the baby dragon.

The filly’s face turned red as a tomato as she let out a shy squeak and took off, leaving Spike confused and bewildered.

“Okay then, ah guess not. Oh well, ah’m sure ah’ll see her again soon.” Spike said with a shrug.

When he returned to his spot in the shade, both of his siblings and pinkie pie were staring at him.

“What?” 

“Ya know ya just stared down feather bangs right?” said Big Mac

The baby dragon blinked “who?”

“He’s the schoolyard bully, tried to push me around for awhile until ah pushed him back.” explained the older colt. “Nice job knocking him down a few pegs by the way. Should make ya real popular around these parts.”

“Great.” Spike said with a frown “as if ah wasn’t getting enough attention already.”


*********************************


The rest of the day seemed to blow by for the students and soon enough it was time for everypony to go home.

“So can I come over to Sweet Apple Acres and play? Huh? Can I? Can I? Can I?” Pinkie Pie asked Bright Mac and Pear Butter, literally bouncing up and down like a popcorn kernel.

The pair could only give each other a nervous glance and then look back at their kids who replied with nothing more than a weak smile.

“Well if it’s okay with yer parents then ah suppose ya can come over.” said Pear Butter, still off put by this filly’s mannerisms.

“YAY!” Pinkie Pie shouted, confetti exploding forth from seemingly nowhere. “You won’t regret this for as long as you live! See you this weekend!”

The filly promptly turned around and hopped down the street.

Bright Mac then turned to Spike “She seemed alright. How did ya meet her again?”

“Well it all started when I walked into class-”

“And I walked in right behind you” said Pinkie Pie, popping up behind the dragon and startling him.

“Wait what?” Applejack’s head began to dart back and forth between the pink filly and the street she had hopped down “weren’t ya just…”


“I forgot to give you guys my official friendship cupcakes.” said Pinkie Pie as she held up a tray of three vanilla cupcakes with rainbow frosting “and I couldn’t leave without giving you them.”

Pinkie Pie unceremoniously shoved the tray into Applejack’s hooves and merrily trotted off.

“Well that was….that was certainly something wasn’t it?” whispered Pear Butter into her husband’s ear “maybe we should keep an eye on the kids during their playdate.”

Bright Mac nodded in agreement, he couldn’t put his hoof on it but there was something seriously off about that filly.

Meanwhile in a quaint little home across town, a small unicorn filly by the name of Rarity was up in her room, hard at work scribbling away at a piece of paper.

The contents of that paper? Well it was a surprisingly detailed drawing of a green and purple dragon in a fancy tuxedo who was standing next to a white unicorn with a similarly colored wedding dress, holding his hand in her hoof with hearts floating between the two.

Rarity stopped to let a dreamy sigh escape her lips.

“The bridesmaids shall wear lavender.” said the fashionista with a goofy smile.

From the very moment Spike had come to her rescue on the playground, Rarity knew that she had finally found her fairytale prince, far sooner than she had expected.

‘Oh he’s so dreamy, from his emerald green eyes to his strong claws, the way his scales seem to shimmer in the midday light. He’s perfect.’

Now all she had to do was gain his affections, a far more difficult task than she could have ever imagined.